Metadata is data created to define and label other data, such as images (describing the length, width, etc.), text (describing the topic, length, author, etc.), and, in the case of structural metadata, the architecture of the structures that contain data. Business metadata attempts to add context to data. A Dictionary or Glossary is part of business metadata, and business metadata is directed to making meaning explicit and providing definitions to business terms, data elements, acronyms and abbreviations. Business metadata is the information needed by business metadata users to trust the business data they use to make their decisions. Business metadata may include definitions of tables, columns, and valid values, where the data came from and flows to, what transformations the data undergoes as the data moves, who else is using the data and how much to trust the data, known issues with the data, basic quality profiles such as histograms or percentages of missing values, and other like information.
Traditionally, metadata handling has been addressed as a structured data problem—that is, the heart of the solution is a table-centric database. The structured data approach has led to a long history of mediocrity or failure despite the efforts of many capable people and large-scale projects with strong management backing.
In contrast to structured approaches is the modern thinking around open source, crowd sourcing, social media, more loosely structured data, and other notions largely lumped into the “big data” concept. Foremost among these is the approach taken by Wikipedia of allowing the world to edit the knowledge, and having only a few key people offer some moderate guidelines, approaches, rules, and as-needed, some discipline. At the same time, such approaches must work gracefully with traditional approaches which do provide some elements of value that may continue to be utilized.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and system for addressing metadata to enable those in the insurance industry to enhance data that is used in making decisions.